Napster claims to have the largest selection of music among online music services, with 6 million tracks, and is making all them available for purchase in standard MP3 format. The DRM-free tracks cost $0.99 and albums cost $9.95, which is comparable with Apple's iTunes Plus DRM-free songs; Apple claims to have 2 million such tracks available. The Apple DRM-free tracks are also in the less-compatible AAC format, which Windows Media Player can't handle. Both companies' DRM-free files are encoded at a high-quality, 256Kbps bitrate.

The new Napster service does not require any monthly membership fee, as the current Napster unlimited-subscription, DRM-ed service does ($12.95 for the on-demand streaming service; $14.95 for the Napster-to-Go portable syncing service). The Web interface works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux running Firefox 2.x or Internet Explorer 7.x (which is recommended). The downloadable Napster software, which is required for the service's portable device syncing, runs only on Windows XP or Vista and requires Windows Media Player 10.

The software was formerly required for purchasing and downloading music, but now that can be accomplished via the updated Web interface. Non-subscribers can preview music in 30 second clips, but subscribers can listen to full tracks.

"With this release, we give the consumers something they feel confident will be theirs on [whatever device they use]" Napster COO Christopher Allen said in a pre-briefing with PC Magazine, adding that "MP3 gives you the most flexibility." He also noted the high-resolution album art that now comes with purchased music.

The Napster site has undergone some usability enhancements: It now resizes with your browser window, and the header has been redesigned for a more streamlined look. A new Action button next to each song entry lets users add songs to playlists and offers the new "Buy MP3" choice.

Allen noted that the service offers over five hundred thousand albums by over four hundred thousand performers. In the fourth quarter of last year the company had two hundred fifty thousand paid subscribers and was No. 1 in portable subscriptions, with revenues of $126 million.

The subscription model, in which users pay a low monthly fee to listen to full-length songs for the entire catalog, continues to be shunned by Apple, making Napster and Rhapsody the major choices for major-label music content in that format.

In Apple's favor, previously purchased iTunes songs can be converted to DRM-free, higher bitrate versions for a 30% surcharge if those versions become available; Napster offers no such conversion capability as yet. So if you bought an album from Napster before this new offering, you'd have to buy it again for the full price to get a DRM-free version.

Unfortunately, although tracks purchased from the new Napster can be played on iPods and iPhones, there will continue to be no Napster subscription option available for those devices. Devices that support the unlimited music subscriptions include players from Creative, Dell, Samsung, iRiver, and SanDisk. Certain phones from LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung also support the service.

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services (pretty much the progenitor of Web 2.0) for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine’s Solutions section, which in those days covered programming techniques as well as tips on using popular office software. Most recently he covered Web...
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